This exact thing happened to my husband. I'm adding him to my healthcare plan this month so he'll have coveraage but he is young, healthy, and had savings just for medical expenses should they occur. No need for him to have some extensive health care plan. We wanted some coverage in place for catastrophic events only. Then BCBS of NC sent him the same letter. It'll be cheaper for hubby to go on my insurance and then we'll add the twins when they are born. My employer based insurance is extremely good but pricey. It's crazy that it'll be cheaper to buy better insurance that was already offered by my employer when Obamacare said the exact opposite would happen.

~Amy

Markel just sent out a notification to us about this:

To ensure compliance with The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Health Care Reform”), Markel is required to provide all employees with the attached notice of coverage options available through the Health Insurance Marketplace (the “Marketplace,” also referred to as the “Exchange”). The purpose of the notice is to inform employees of the existence of the Marketplace, describe the services of the Marketplace and provide contact information about the Marketplace.Since Markel offers full-time employees with an employer-sponsored plan that meets both the minimum value and affordability guidelines of Health Care Reform, Markel employees are not eligible to receive a premium tax credit through the Marketplace.

I wanted to make sure I understood it right, so e-mailed my dad (who also works here at Markel):

So this basically means that we don’t have to switch over, right?

His response:

From Markel’s perspective it means that

Markel has done their legally required duty in notifying you that there is such a thing as an Exchange where you could buy your insurance and possibly save money there.

They’ve done their legally required duty in notifying you that the plans they do/will offer will qualify with the new laws, and what is the cost of the lowest priced option is among those plans (employee only), so you could compare that to whatever the Exchange has to offer.

And they’ve done their legally required duty in notifying you that, because the plans they offer meet the requirements, you would not qualify for a tax credit if you buy your insurance through the Exchange.

And yes, from our perspective it means that we don’t have to change, and likely we’d be crazy to buy our insurance from the government. (That would be interesting … would government health insurance pay for your treatment if you were declared legally insane for buying health insurance from the government … ?)